When the president considered sitting down with the four congressional leaders in the White House ahead of the deadline to avert a government shutdown, Reid privately urged Obama to call off the meeting, according to several people familiar with the situation. Reid believed that it would amount to nothing more than a photo-op that would give the false impression that a serious negotiation was occurring, even warning he wouldnt attend such a session. Obama scrapped it.

As Washington barrels forward to the first government shutdown in 17 years on Tuesday, the wily Reid has taken the lead role in pushing a hardball Democratic legislative strategy that can be summed up like this: Make the Republicans cave.

Attach to the CR things Main Street Americans can associate with. Example, Congress and staff cannot be exempt from the law they passed. If they want it changed, it must be voted on and not OPM. Demand POTUS undo all past waivers. If Obamacare is a good program, all those who support it must live by it. This puts the Dems and Obama in a spot, and the move is the openning salvos for the 2014 elections.

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